Reading Capital (The Verso Classics Series) (Paperback)

by Louis Althusser (Author), Etienne Balibar (Author), Ben Brewster (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Review
One reads his passionate study with attention, even with excitement. -- Eric Hobsbawm, Times Literary Supplement

Product Description
Reading Capital presents Louis Althusser's systematic theory of a Marxism cleansed of all idealist and Hegelian notions. No reader interested in modern Marxism can afford to bypass this book. "One reads his passionate study with attention, even with excitement". Eric Hobsbawm, Times Literary Supplement.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: Verso (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859841643
• ISBN-13: 978-1859841648
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #819,652 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Althusser's masterpiece, September 14, 2002

By	Mark Phillips (Pacifica, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's almost impossible to understand Marx's specific theoretical and methodological positions 150 years after. Not because they're exceptionally difficult, rather that they've been obfuscated by generations of pro- and anti- ideologues. Althusser's project is to reconstruct Marx's theoretical practices at a very high level of rigor, clarifying, for example, the specific differences between Hegel's understanding of "dialectics" and Marx's. In doing so he produces a series of new concepts: "structure in dominance", "overdetermination", "problematic", "epistemological break", "combinatory" and others. While none of these *terms* is present in Marx's writing, the things they refer to definitely are. In turn, this labor makes it possible to clearly understand the theoretical differences between Marx's early works and his mature ones; that is, between his "Feuerbachian" youth and his Marxist maturity. This is a difficult work, but a profoundly rewarding one for those interested in what it is that makes Marx Marx.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinarily difficult, May 27, 2009

By	not a natural (huntington, west virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reading Capital: (Radical Thinkers) (Paperback)

Reading Capital is often credited with giving rise to a renaissance in Marx scholarship. It does introduce a few new concepts, but I found them to be of dubious value. Structural Marxism, moreover, appeals to me precisely because it places a heavy emphasis on determinism, treating free will as a convenient fiction, much as Marx did. Furthermore, Reading Capital dispenses with the sort of instrumentalist thinking that would have us believe that merely by replacing people in key positions, needed social structural changes will occur. But that was Marx's view, too.

In truth, with the exception of a few opaque concepts for which established substitutes already exist (even the glossary is virtually unreadable), I can't see the contribution. I spent a lot of time trying to understand what Althusser wanted his readers to learn. Unfashionable though it may be, I think there is a great deal less here than meets the eye.

I have had my share of frustrating experiences trying to master ostensibly brilliant books. The only one that tried my patience more and ultimately led to greater disappointment was Foucault's The Archaelogy of knowledge. Both books are simply unreadable.

I don't know what to do about Foucault. But if you're going to read Marx, then read Marx.